Soft Shortcrust Pastry

/5

PRESENTATION

Shortcrust pastries are not all the same: there are endless variations and many ways of working it to achieve the desired consistency and make sweet tarts, cookies, stuffed cakes! Today we present the soft shortcrust pastry that comes from the meeting of softened butter at room temperature with powdered sugar, perfect for dissolving more easily in doughs with few liquids and many fats. A bit of lemon zest to give a delicate note and some grams of baking powder because the pastry is more crumbly. The soft shortcrust pastry is prepared in just a few minutes, but a taste is enough for it to be unforgettable. Prepare it with us, it could become your favorite pastry!

Try also these other shortcrust pastry recipes:

INGREDIENTS
Ingredients (for a tart with a 9 1/2 inches diameter or 2.2 lbs of cookies)
Flour 00 4 cups (500 g)
Butter 1 cup (250 g) - at room temperature
Powdered sugar 1 ¾ cup (200 g)
Eggs 2
Powdered yeast for sweets 1 ½ tsp (8 g)
Lemon peel 1
Fine salt 1 pinch
Preparation

How to prepare Soft Shortcrust Pastry

To prepare the soft shortcrust pastry, take the butter out of the refrigerator and keep it at room temperature for about 20 minutes. After that, break it into pieces and put it in the stand mixer 1, flavor with untreated lemon zest 2 and pour in the powdered sugar 3.

Attach the paddle and start to knead everything on a medium-low speed 4. Once a cream is obtained, add the two eggs 5 and a pinch of salt while continuing to knead 6.

Once the eggs have been absorbed, add the flour with the sifted baking powder, a little at a time, keeping the stand mixer running 7. Continue to knead just long enough to mix the ingredients together 8. Transfer to the work surface and compact the dough ball, flattening it slightly. Wrap the dough ball with cling film 9 and place it in the fridge for at least 1 hour. After the resting time, with these quantities of soft shortcrust pastry you can make a 9 1/2 inches (24 cm) diameter tart with lattice or about 2.2 lbs of cookies!

How to store

The soft shortcrust pastry can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Alternatively, it can be frozen for up to 1 month.

Tips

You can flavor the soft shortcrust pastry with orange zest or with the seeds of a vanilla pod. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can knead the soft shortcrust pastry in a bowl following the same order of ingredients.

Baking Tips

There is no fixed rule and the advice is to follow the specific recipe that is being made. However, for tarts, in general, a temperature between 300-340°F is usually preferred. For cookies or blind-baking or pre-baking of tarts, about 355°F can be fine!